APLXTM Development Environment

MicroAPL's long experience in developing APL windowing systems, plus our extensive exposure to 'best-of-breed' development environments for other languages, has been carefully applied to the design of APLX as a platform for writing APL code. The aim has been to provide very powerful development facilities, without any distracting on-screen clutter. Key features available in APLX Version 4 include (click on images to enlarge):

A pop-up menu is available at any time to edit an object, see its value, structure or properties (including the syntax and first few lines of comment if it is a function/operator), or access the comprehensive on-line help system for the object or APL symbol at the cursor. You can even bring up an instant chart of an APL variable!

The convenient Workspace Explorer window lets you browse quickly through the workspace contents. You can edit functions or operators directly in this window, or in an Edit or Debug window. Syntax coloring is available, with facilities for identifying and localizing variables changed by a function.

Display windows show you the structure of APL nested arrays, in a form similar to the standard APL2 DISPLAY function. (There is also a built-in Quad-DISPLAY system function.)

The Debug window provides a user-friendly front-end for you to intervene when errors occur or a breakpoint is hit, displaying the stopped function and allowing you to browse the )SI stack.

As well as using the pop-up menu to inspect variable contents, you can edit the stopped function directly in the debug window, set and clear breakpoints, and use the Step Over, Step In, Step Out and Go buttons to control execution. And if you want to resume execution from a different line, just drag the execution pointer there.

Watch windows allow you to monitor the contents of a variable or the result of any APL expression

The Control Browser shows details of the OCX/ActiveX controls, OLE document types, and OLE servers you can use in conjunction with APLX (Windows only).

A comprehensive, indexed, searchable on-line help system means the APLX documentation is always accessible. Printable manuals in PDF format are also supplied.

APLX Version 4 include a powerful new General Array Editor. This allows you to edit almost any simple, mixed or nested APL array. You can edit any element, and if you wish
restructure it (for example, convert a numeric scalar element to a three-dimensional nested
array).

The Search Workspace facility allows you to search all unlocked functions, operators, and class methods in the workspace. You can search for either a simple string, or a regular expression.

APLX includes comprehensive support for charting, including the ability to create a chart from an APL variable using a single mouse click.

Multiple APLX sessions and multi-tasking

You can have multiple APLX sessions running simultaneously, each with its own workspace - ideal for comparing two versions of a workspace, or for browsing a workspace of utility functions which you might want to use in the workspace your are developing.

Just select New Session from the File menu, and a new session window will open.

What's more, your APLX applications can also create new APL tasks under program control, either running in the background or with their own session windows. Data can be shared between tasks, and Signal events can be used to synchronize execution.